Your wealth is a reflection of your vision, your discipline, and the work you’ve put in—year after year.
But without a plan? Your wealth can unravel faster than it was built. Taxes, legal delays, disputes—without strategy, your life’s work gets chipped away. Slowly at first, then all at once.
That’s where Wherry & Associates Private Wealth Management steps in. We specialize in estate planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals—helping families keep what they’ve earned, ensuring it’s protected, preserved, and passed on with purpose.
Beyond a Will: Why High-Net-Worth Families Need More
A will is an important step—but thoughtful planning takes things further. It allows you to shape not just who inherits, but how, when, and with what purpose. For high-net-worth families, that level of detail matters. Business shares, real estate, and investments all carry unique considerations—from tax implications to timing. You may want to gradually pass on wealth to protect younger beneficiaries, or ensure your spouse has full financial security without added stress.
At Wherry & Associates, we help you take control of those decisions—so your wealth moves exactly as you intend, with clarity and confidence.
Tax-Smart Estate Planning Strategies for High-Net-Worth Individuals
Without planning, taxes can gradually erode the wealth you’ve worked a lifetime to build—reducing what’s passed on and limiting the impact of your legacy.
Our strategies make sure that doesn’t happen.
Here’s how we help minimize tax burdens in estate planning:
- Trusts That Protect Wealth: Controlled distributions, gradual releases, and clear boundaries that ensure heirs receive wealth when they’re prepared to manage it—not before.
- Capital Gains Strategies: We manage taxable gains with smart planning, ensuring your investments pass to heirs efficiently.
- Gifting Strategies That Make Sense: Thoughtful gifting while you’re still alive lets you witness your wealth in action—while reducing your estate’s tax burden.
- Business Succession Strategies: Share freezes, holding companies, and staggered payouts reduce tax pressure during the transition.
Wherry & Associates Private Wealth Management builds plans that reduce taxes without compromising your wealth’s potential.
Life Insurance: A Powerful Tool for Estate Planning
When structured correctly, life insurance turns small premiums into substantial payouts, creating instant liquidity when your estate faces probate fees, legal costs, and unexpected tax bills.
How we use life insurance in estate planning:
- Tax-Free Wealth Transfer: Life insurance bypasses probate and delivers payouts directly to beneficiaries—fast and tax-free.
- Immediate Cash Flow for Expenses: Estate taxes often arrive before assets can be accessed. Life insurance bridges that gap, ensuring your family isn’t forced to sell property, businesses, or investments in a rush.
- Funding a Business Succession Plan: The right policy secures business continuity, ensuring your company thrives even after you’ve stepped away.
Protecting Your Legacy Through Business Succession
For many high-net-worth individuals, the business is the cornerstone of the estate. Without a clear succession plan, that legacy can unravel, creating tax liabilities, ownership disputes, and financial strain for the next generation.
We integrate business succession into your estate plan, helping ensure a smooth transfer of ownership, preservation of value, and long-term continuity for your family or chosen successors.
Our planning may include:
- Family Succession Strategies: Facilitating fair, tax-efficient transitions that protect both the business and family relationships.
- Employee Buyout Plans: Allowing key staff to continue operations while supporting your estate goals.
- Sale Preparation and Post-Exit Planning: Structuring your business sale to maximize value and align proceeds with your long-term wealth transfer strategy.
Your business created your wealth—we help make sure it preserves your legacy.
Educating the Next Generation: Wealth Transfer Done Right
Wealth without guidance? It’s a recipe for disaster.
Too often, heirs inherit wealth they’re not prepared to manage. The result? Overspending, bad investments, or decisions that dismantle decades of financial progress.
That’s why our estate planning strategies for high-net-worth families focus on education as much as execution.
We help:
- Establish Trusts That Teach Responsibility: Gradual wealth transfers with conditions that encourage smart financial decisions.
- Prepare Heirs to Manage Wealth: We guide families through conversations about wealth—so heirs understand their role before the money arrives.
- Structure Inheritances for Growth: We build plans that encourage responsibility while allowing your family to build on what you’ve created.
Wealth isn’t just about what you leave behind—it’s about preparing the next generation to carry it forward.
Charitable Giving: Leave a Legacy That Lasts
Your values can live on long after you’re gone.
Strategic philanthropy doesn’t just support causes you care about—it can also deliver meaningful tax advantages that strengthen your estate’s financial security.
Whether you’re establishing a family foundation, creating a donor-advised fund, or leaving gifts in your will, we’ll build a giving strategy that’s thoughtful, impactful, and tax-efficient.
A Relationship Built on Trust & Transparency
Estate planning is deeply personal—closely tied to the people and values that matter most. That’s why clients turn to Wherry & Associates for honest advice, clear explanations, and thoughtful guidance.
We’re transparent about fees, proactive in our communication, and committed to ensuring you feel informed every step of the way. We start by listening, take the time to explain our recommendations, and carefully walk through every detail—so you can move forward with clarity and confidence.
Start Building Your Estate Plan Today
Your wealth is proof of your hard work, smart decisions, and years of dedication. Don’t let that legacy slip through the cracks.
At Wherry & Associates, we build estate planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals in Toronto that ensure your wealth flows where it’s meant to—not to taxes, legal fees, or unexpected surprises.
Your future isn’t something to leave to chance. Let’s build a plan that works. Contact Wherry & Associates today.